Asia Cup reformated, adds women’s event

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 27: Though the focus will be on Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, who once again carry Indian hopes to the Asian Tenni...

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 27: Though the focus will be on Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, who once again carry Indian hopes to the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) Cup, for a change the women are also in the limelight this time. Nirupama Vaidyanathan and Manisha Malhotra will mark their debut in the tournament, as the women’s event has also been included in this year’s format.

"Our women players are also doing very well and it is a very good opportunity for them to prove their mettle," said tournament director Akhouri Bishwadeep. "We have been pursuing the matter with ATF for more than a month now and finally they have agreed to add the women’s event too," Bishwadeep added.

While there is no doubt that Nirupama and Manisha will be the selectors’ first choice, the other players and standbyes will be decided after the selection committee meets in Mumbai tomorrow. Saijayalakshi, Rushmi Chakravarty, Shruti Dhawan will be the ones vying for the vacant slots and will hard press Shyam Minotra, chairman of the selection committee, for inclusion in the team.

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In the men’s section, Syed Fazaluddin, Prahlad Srinath, Nitin Kirtane and Harsh Mankad are some of the names that are under consideration.

The $90,000 prize money event, scheduled to be held from December 19 to 24 at the RK Khanna Stadium, has been re-formated to make it more interesting and "glamorous". This time the top four Asian teams in both categories will compete to decide the Asian team champions in each category. The total prize money also has been increased to $90,000 from prevailing $84,000 ($50,000 for men and $40,000 for women).

Previously, only top eight Asian teams used to be invited for participation in the event, which was conceptualised as team event on the lines of Davis Cup. But the re-worked format will see four top men and women teams from Asia taking part this year.

In the men’s section, apart from hosts India, Korea, Thailand and Uzbekistan are the other teams nominated by the ATF while in the women’s section, the invitees are India, China, Indonesia and Thailand.

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The tournament will be conducted on a round-robin basis and two top teams will meet in the finals in both sections. ATF has nominated Japan’s Nao Kawatei referee of the tournament while China’s Shu Chen, Singapore’s Ales Yeo, India’s Puneet Gupta and Nitin Kannamwar will be the chair umpires.

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